I realize this an old post however a coworker who has a home-based business asked me about this practice. She heard about it at a recent workshop. The take, which is different than what I've read here, is that buying expired domains is a good strategy due to their age which is valued in search. I was intrigued which is what brought me here.

1. Is there value in buying domains with a history
2. Instead of redirecting, use the domain to generate traffic with fresh content and link back to your original domain
3. And how much value is there in keeping domains out of competitors' hands if there isn't any value in owning the domains

Thanks,

I am sure you will receive more informed answers however I am facing a similar situation. I do know that local SEO greatly affects national rankings and recommend you optimize all local listings using a service like MOZ local (there are others too.) I track our rankings nationally and in a variety of markets where we compete or wish to compete.

I also recommend doing keyword research to determine your product is being searched locally (where to buy "your product" in washington dc) It may not be a large volume of searches but they could be very targeted meaning high value prospects. And the branding you get from it won't hurt either. And chances are those phrases will have a low difficulty as well.

I hope that helps and also gets more responses for you.